Face of the Day

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told his party’s education spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime she should have responded to attempts the government was making to brief her on the NCEA change process.

But he doesn’t believe it was unreasonable for Prime to wait to speak with teachers and parents before meeting Education Minister Erica Stanford.

Prime is, for the most part, standing by her actions but has acknowledged she could have explained to the minister why she wasn’t initially taking up her offer.

She also responded to ACT leader David Seymour saying he would have sacked her, by saying, “I’m glad he’s not my leader, and he isn’t my leader”.

It comes after revelations from the Herald this morning that Stanford and her office wrote to Prime on multiple occasions over several months inviting her to be briefed on the NCEA work programme and meet with officials, but the Labour MP initially didn’t respond.

More than three months after the initial invitation, Prime wrote back and declined the invitation. But that was only after Stanford went around her and straight to Hipkins.

A few weeks later, as the Herald was reporting that NCEA changes were coming soon, Prime sought a meeting with Stanford. This couldn’t happen before the reforms were publicly announced this week but a meeting is now in the works.

NZ Herald